Shrubs to 2 m tall. Branchlets dark purplish brown when young, later grayish brown, terete, with sparse, curved prickles. Leaves simple; petiole 1–2 cm, glabrous or slightly pubescent along groove, with sparse, minute prickles; stipules caducous, free, oblong-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 7–9 mm, glabrous, palmatifid, lobes linear; blade lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 8–14 × 1.8–3.5 cm, lateral veins 7–10 pairs, prominent adaxially, abaxially glabrous, with sparse, curved small prickles along midvein, adaxially glabrous except slightly hairy along veins, base cordate-auriculate, basal incision narrow, margin thinly sharply serrate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, narrow cymose panicles, 7–11 cm; rachis and pedicels glabrous; bracts oblong-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 5–8 mm, glabrous, palmatifid; lobes linear. Pedicel 5–10 mm. Flowers 6–8 mm in diam. Calyx abaxially glabrous except sparsely stipitate glandular; sepals erect in fruit, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 6–10 mm, glabrous, margin entire or lobed, sometimes inner sepals with gray tomentose margin, apex caudate. Petals suborbicular, basally pubescent adaxially, apex abruptly pointed. Stamens many; filaments short, slender. Pistils glabrous. Aggregate fruit red, less than 1 cm in diam., glabrous; pyrenes rugose. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Jul–Sep.

Montane valleys, mountain summits, near water courses, dense forests; below 1000 m. S Guangxi.